If you like taking pictures, it's a great time to own a smartphone. After a few years in which Apple, Inc. (AAPL) went relatively unchallenged in picture quality, other players are now stepping up with ambitious point and shoots that rival the iPhone in image quality. Among them is the 4 megapixel UltraPixel sensor from the HTC Corp. (TPE:2498) which is housed aboard the HTC One.

Now Nokia Oyj. (HEX:NOK1V)) is looking to join that elite group with its own entrant -- a massive PureView-equipped Windows Phone. The new phone -- codenamed the EOS has, after months of rumors, leaked in photographic form. Some of the photos come courtesy of leaked images of a cherry red shell being manufactured in China. Others come from a leaked prototype that GSMArena got their hands on.

The new handset is almost the identical twin of the Lumia 920, except for one monstrous defining feature -- a circular camera bulge that eclipses nearly half the phone's rear face.

The bulge features a bar-style xenon flash and is rumored to pack a massive 41 megapixel sensor, which is likely the largest on a smartphone today. An earlier version of this sensor was previously included in another Nokia smartphone, but that handset used Symbian and was only sold overseas.

Nokia has already been boasting about its low-light photography prowess. Now it aims to become king of daytime picture-taking as well.

[Image Source: GSM Arena]

The leaked prototype will reportedly hit the market packing Windows Phone 8, which means it will likely launch sometime in the next several markets. That should give Nokia's sales some legs in the lull leading up to Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 (previously codenamed "Windows Phone Blue") refresh.

You guys do know they have done this before, right? Nokia Pureview 808. Check it out.

Obviously there are things you can't do in a smartphone form factor, such as having a huge sensor. That doesn't invalidate what they have done with this technology. It's not a DSLR. No one is claiming it is. But it is leaps and bounds above any other smartphone camera, and superior to most stand-alone point-and-shoots as well.

you obviously have no idea how f stops are calculated. This isn't a telephoto lens, it is meant to be fast. Even lenses with very small flange to plate distances need to have a large enough front element to gather light.

quote: Even lenses with very small flange to plate distances need to have a large enough front element to gather light.

Only at high magnification. The f-stop is a measure of the lens opening compared to its focal length. As these are tiny lenses designed for tiny sensors, the entrance pupil need not be very large in order to have a wide aperture.